RU: Sedgley Park 33 Harrogate 27

SUPER Sedgley Park clambered into second spot in National Two by beating Harrogate in a thriller at Park Lane.

SUPER Sedgley Park clambered into second spot in National Two by beating Harrogate in a thriller at Park Lane.

But they had to battle all the way to secure the points.

At one stage it looked as though they might throw it away against a side that played good rugby and exposed some flaws in the Sedgley defence.

But they brought on old campaigner Chris Raducanu and the former Sale and Romanian international, backed up by versatile New Zealander Rob Moon, made sure of success.

Within 17 minutes Sedgley had built a 15-point lead and, despite playing with a stiff wind at their backs, the scoring rate seemed good enough to send the side in at half-time with a lead they could defend.

Yet their game suddenly fell apart as they were given a very searching examination by a useful Harrogate side.

Clinging on to a one-point lead at the interval, Sedgley could have been excused for thinking they faced an uphill struggle in the second period.

But Harrogate used the wind to kick for field position and that placed the ball in Sedgley hands.

Driving seat

Sedgley took the lead in the fifth minute when a good forward drive enabled scrum-half Dave McCormack to release Tim Fourie on the charge.

The South African found wing Paul Morris in support and he worked hard to weave his way over the Harrogate line.

Then fly-half Colin Stephens kicked a penalty before converting an excellent try by Mike Wilcock, playing on the opposite wing to Morris.

Wilcock finished off well but it was a delightful blindside break by Moon that paved the way for the try.

At that stage Sedgley seemed to be in the driving seat but their line-out started to go awry and their work in defence wasn't as sure as their usual standard.

Harrogate fly-half, Lee Cholewa, exposed those defensive frailties for a try under the sticks, that he improved upon himself and he made no mistake with the boot when big John Dudley burst through more weak tackling to score.

Stephens and Cholewa exchanged penalties after the break as the sides stayed seperated by a mere point but the appearance of Raducanu for Paul Rees was to help Sedgley find the shape that had been missing from their game.

A superb line-out take, under pressure, set up a siege on the Harrogate line that was breached by promising young second row Paul Arnold.

More pressure from a line-out saw Raducanu work his way over and victory was assured.

Harrogate did run in two more tries, which will have worried the Sedgley coaches, but they were interspersed by a cracker from Moon who used all his skills to outwit the Harrogate defence, even though the odds had been three to one against, to score in the corner before, surprisingly, missing the conversion.

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